As he looked around, an idea came to him.

He doesn't want chili sauce; he wants to buy the raw ingredients directly.

"Uncle, who are you?"

"I am the head chef of Mingyue Restaurant, and my surname is Su," Chef Su introduced himself.

"I know how you make your chili sauce."

"Then tell me, uncle, how did you make it?" Qiao Lian'er asked, wanting to judge whether a chef's intuition in this area was much better than that of the average person.

"This oil is originally rapeseed oil. Then you use scallions, star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, and Sichuan peppercorns to make a fragrant oil base. Next, you add minced ginger and scallions, along with one type of fresh chili pepper that has been drained of moisture, and then add this dried chili pepper. At the same time, you add light soy sauce, salt, sugar, soybean paste, sesame seeds, and thirteen-spice powder to make the chili sauce."

Qiao Lian'er was stunned for a moment. The ingredients and the order of preparation were exactly the same. She was indeed a master chef.

Moreover, Chef Su asked about the raw materials as soon as she arrived, instead of buying chili sauce from her. She was a savvy person and didn't need her to say anything, which saved her a lot of trouble.

"We have chili peppers, they're all in the carriage, two hundred catties of each kind. Uncle Su, how many do you plan to take?"

Chef Su said sternly, "Let me inspect the goods first."

Da Meng and Xiao Meng got on the carriage, unloaded the dried chili peppers and small red chili peppers, and opened the bags.

Chef Su picked up a handful of dried chilies and examined them, then picked up a handful of small red chilies. Although he had never seen these before, he could tell that they were large, plump, and brightly colored—good stuff.

"How much?" Chef Su nodded and put down the chili peppers in his hand.

"This dried kind costs twenty coins a pound, and this kind of millet pepper costs ten coins a pound."

Chef Su knew that dried food needed to be sun-dried, which already involved shrinkage, so it was normal for it to be a bit more expensive.

The chili sauce cost 37 coins per pound, which was one of the reasons he wanted to buy the raw ingredients.

"How about this, I'll buy fifty catties of each. If it works well, I'll buy more from you."

"Okay, don't worry, uncle. I guarantee there won't be any problems. You've seen it yourself, the people here like spicy food."

Qiao Lian'er weighed fifty catties of each and received one and a half taels of cash.

Although it wasn't heavy, Da Meng and Xiao Meng still delivered it.

Chef Su showed a hint of satisfaction. She knew how to treat people; when they were weighing the food earlier, this girl had even given them an extra two pounds.

By now, the day was drawing to a close, and with most of the goods sold, everyone was packing up their stalls and preparing to go home.

Qiao Laosan couldn't wait to climb into the carriage and count the money in a bamboo basket.

"Today I sold 20 taels of other food items, 3 taels of chili sauce, and 10 taels of wholesale potatoes, peanuts, and chili peppers, which adds up to 33 taels."

Da Yong followed him in and calculated: "The family now has three hundred and twenty taels."

The two were filled with immense satisfaction.

Money, it's all just pure, unadulterated money.

The large courtyard and spacious houses seemed to beckon to them.

The stall owners watched with envy. Although they didn't know how much the Qiao family had made today, seeing the long queues in front of their stalls, how quickly the snacks were being consumed, and how they were selling dozens or even hundreds of kilograms of ingredients, they figured it must be no less than twenty taels.

They shouldn't even think about that number for a month.

In fact, their customer traffic recovered quickly, because people who came to the food street bought all sorts of things.

But they always felt a burning sensation in their eyes and a sour feeling in their hearts.

The burly man also kept giving them a sinister look. His gaze turned cold. How could he have forgotten that one of his childhood friends had set up camp on the mountaintop and had a bunch of underlings?